Chapter 23: The “Second Religious Awakening” triggers social reform movements. 

Monroe’s tenure is also marked by a religious revival, the “Second Great Awakening,” which activates a series of social reform movements — among them opposition to the institution of slavery.

Its early advocates – deemed “abolitionists” — are few in number and roundly scorned by the vast majority of Americans who share a common set of prejudices regarding all Africans. Namely that they are a separate, inferior race, prone to violence, and incapable of ever being assimilated into white society.

Although slavery is originally embraced by all thirteen states, by 1815 it has been banned across the North, where its “freedmen” are herded into segregated ghettos and their behavior is regulated by stringent “black codes.”